Black_amp_amp_White_Photography_-_January_2016_

23

B+W

Opposite The Power Of Nature Above Tea Time

Joe Staines: What sort of photography

were you doing before you discovered

the wet plate process?

Alex Timmermans: Just the normal

business – weddings, commercial

photography, portraits and so on. I also did

some urban photography for myself, but the

problem was that everybody started using

the same locations so it was very hard to find

anything that hadn’t already been published

on the web. In 2009 I stopped commercial

photography and was able to focus completely

on wet plate – first portraits and then in

2012 I started my storytelling work.

JS: What was it about wet collodion

photography that especially attracted you?

AT: Digital photography didn’t challenge me

any more; it had become too predictable.

More and more I disliked using Photoshop

to correct the ‘mistakes’ I had made during

a shoot. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing

wrong with digital photography; I see

stunning work made by some very talented

photographers, but for me there was no

longer the passion for it.

JS: So why not return to using film?

AT: Of course, I could have gone back to

normal film. But the wet plate process gave

me back the feeling that I was really making

a picture again, not just taking it. It brought

me back to the very basics of photography:

from cutting the glass, mixing my own

chemicals, experimenting with formulae,

all the way to making my own print. Having

control over the whole process.

JS: How does the fact that it’s so slow

and labour-intensive affect your choice

of subject matter?

AT: Because it takes so much effort to make

a plate, it really slows me down and forces 

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